Survival of the Deadliest
by Celestial Glowhead
Summary: The Manhattan incident wasn't the end of Zeus. New city, same type of outbreak. But this time, he isn't fighting humans but something even more sinister. Takes place after Prototype 1.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, guys, before I continue with my other stories, I was just having this urge to begin writing this magnificent idea that Dragonlord Rynn gave me. A crossover between Prototype and Alien. Originally, it was just that but then I had a good look at the classic Alien vs Predator arcade game by Capcom, which I found to be amazing and terrific, if only the movies could have been more like it. I mean, in case you didn't know, that isn't a movie tie-in, it came like 8 years before and it's full blown awesomeness. I just thought it would be great to base most of the story on that game, it had a lot of potential. I think Mercer fits in just fine. I'd like to point out that this takes place in 2016 but in an alternate timeline where the xenomorph were discovered and encountered long before they originally were, while some of them are even hiding in earth, waiting to be awakened (like in the crossovers with Batman and Superman and Tarzan). But enough talk from me, you came here for a story so here you go, hope you enjoy, review and follow but I can settle for a view honestly.**

 **Survival of the deadliest.**

 **Chapter 1**

 **Starting the fire.**

The year was 2018. The new world's governments had gone through many expenses to step up their game in the weapon and radical experiment sectors. Events like the Manhattan outbreak had been deemed by the general public as mankind's first experience with the superhuman. Reports coming out of the place were unbelievable and unforgettable too. The official version was a chewed up and distorted cover up for the real happening in order to make it easier for the outside world to cope with it and disregard it as an infortunate event.

There was barely any talk on the involvement of high ranking officers and scientists under their command in the origin and rise of the blacklight virus, or the brutal and questionable tactics of Blackwatch. Most of their dirty secrets were burned down with he creatures or buried carefully behind the scenes.

But the truth was that the infection wasn't the first encounter that mankind had with the inhuman or an irregular species. Decades ago, in 1987, a taskforce of veteran soldiers and specialist had been assigned to a mission in the jungle, supposedly to combat a guerrilla group csusing them trouble. What they found was something else entirely. A hunter, from out of this world, set on getting a worthy hunt out of human warriors. It preyed on them, took them out one by one until the last one managed to fight him on his own game and so the hunter was defeated and slain accordingly, leaving only two survivors behind.

But the hunt didn't cease there, that wasn't even the first time they came across the hunters. Later on, in 1991, a new hunter came in a ship to start a new, more ambitious and extensive hunt, through a city this time. The specialists and secret services tried to get a better hold of it this time and capture the specimen if possible. It didn't turn out well, but once again, the hunter met his end at the hands of a supposed prey, gutted with his very own weapon. The elders of his species came to pick up the corpse and destroy the ship in order to erase the evidence and leave their weapons outside of man's was no evidence left to be collected and the officers managed to keep the hunt from coming out to public light, pulling their strings to cover it up.

The hunting sprees kept going for a long while, the functionaries and authority figures learning and getting more technology or left overs from the outsiders with each time. All these acquired assets were distributed carefully to be applied to weaponry and technologic advances, going as far as to start space missions and programs that were kept undercover but moved whenever they saw fit. They even established communication with the predator species, learning of their culture and then began exchanging offers with the now named Yautja. The next hunts didn't happen by chance nor did they take the authority by surprise, on the contrary, they were now partaking in them. They had arranged the main events and organized what the Yautja deemed as traditional games, letting them abduct convicts, outcasts, mercenaries and other individuals that were considered accountable by the government, in exchange for weapons and resourceful knowledge from the Yautja.

This eventually led the humans to the discovery of another alien species, one more dangerous, completely unreasonable and way more ruthless. The organisms, known as the xenomorph, were capable of reproducing by getting their hatches, called facehuggers, to violate their way through a host and then leaving the newly created specimen to violent erupt through the chest of the victim and quickly grow into an adult organism, retaining qualities from the host, spawning many variants in appearance.

The Yautja had been hunting the xenomorph as an unique prey whenever they had the chance. They were revered as the most dangerous species in the galaxy by them. Of course, knowing this, the humans thought of how these creatures could prove useful to them. The Yautja even gave them the coordinates to find some old ships that had crashed on earth hundreds of years ago in cold regions. They were full of a large amounts of contained xenomorphs and their eggs, frozen due to the temperature. How did the Yautja know? Because they sent most of them personally, in case they could find a good hunt there one day, not like it was still needed though.

After the discovery, the shipments fell under the possession of the Weyland Yutani corporation. All those little deadly horrors, moved over their secret labs and quarters and filed in for future experiments, leaving humanity under a great inminent danger. Mankind got a hold of something they couldn't control. That had happened before the Manhattan incident however, this led the corporation as well as the multinational military personnel that was in league with them, to considerate new methods and proceedures. That just had no chance of turning out well for earth.

 **[2018, 0600 hours. In a military base handled by the Weyland Yutani corp]**

Two individuals were being transported in an armored truck headed towards a plane. In front of that plane stood patiently the man in charge of keeping the following operation under control. He stood with a power stance that projected authority and commanded respect amongst the men under his command or besides him. He, like other ones with his rank, wore unique prototype equipment compared to other team members. He wore a modular tactical vest, as well as a delta force-style helmet with night vision goggles, plus a neck guard. He notably carried more equipment than the rest of his brothers in arms, presumably because he had a tendency to lead ahead of the rest, given that he was a professional mercenary. The weapon he carried was a SCAR-H with a thermal scope.

From the truck came an imposing, well built vereran soldier, standing significantly taller than everyone else. His body not only was muscular but also enhanced with prosthetics such as a metallic arm and a metal brace around the neck area. He sported blond hair, not natural but dyed and wore a green tank top with matching pants and his dog tags visible. He wore only those basic combat clothes since the enhancements he received provided him with enough protection to withstand the heat of a battle. This man had been the survivor of the Vale Verde jungle hunter incident back at 1987, alongside a female prisoner he was carrying. When the rescue team arrived in a chopper to pick him up. He was quickly greeted by the corporal with a smile.

"Mr. Schaefer, pleasured to meet you. I am PMC. You may call me corporal Dunn, or just Dunn. The boys and I were looking forwards this meeting." Said the receiving man while offering his hand in a greeting. Dutch just replied by shaking it firmly with his organic but still enhanced hand, in a quick exchange of respect and strength. Surprisingly enough for him, Dunn was putting up a good grip too.

"The pleasure is mine. Quite grip there, corporal. The agency got you pushing too many pencils?" Dutch asked jokingly due to the man's position.

"I'm more of a runner, but I got around putting up some mass." He said with a smirk before breaking the shake. He then took a look at his robotic implant. "That's a good prosthetic. Must have been hard to get. Did the army do it?"

"I found my own way to get it. Some advanced robotics company used me as a test subject before trying it for other soldiers. Name was Cyberdyne." Dutch told him, thinking back at the proceedures that left him complete.

He then looked at the second individual accompanying Dutch. An asian woman, seemed to be an experienced soldier since her rank was of liutenant. She wore a combat attire, more so than Dutch due to her lack of major enhancements. She was armed with an executioner revolver with laser sight and a futuristic pistol known as the Killer 7 with a handful of magazines packed with high power ammo.

"You should have told us you would bring friends."

"She isn't just a friend. She's part of the deal, A partner." Dutch replied. Dunn then figured out who it was from the files.

"Liutenant Lynn Kurosawa, right?" He confirmed, earning a nod and response from the woman.

"Aye. I take it we will carry out the assignment now."

"Yeah. This way." Dunn then boarded their transport and showed them in. After he led Kurosawa and Schaefer into the plane, he went talk with the pilots, giving them the order to take off.

During the flight, they were all given a proper debriefing. The plane's crew included Dunn, his men and now both Schaefer and Kurosawa.

"As you may know by now, we have been deployed to California in hopes of containing a minor outbreak in the designated lab and deliver an undisclosed cargo, there in the secured crates. However, we haven't received word from our contacts meant to take the package in. We can only hope for the best but in such case, we will now have to HALO jump, land next to our destination and proceed to clear the area until the delivery is safe and possible. Any doubts?" Dunn said out loud to make himself audible as they flew to their destination.

"What kind of outbreak are we talking about? Like the blacklight incident?" Asked liutenant Kurosawa.

"Way different to that." The corporal then threw her a folder containing all the necessary intel on the matter.

When she read it, she tried her best to keep her cool though the pictures and details she observed were almost unbelievable and truly terrifying. The hostiles weren't any infected humans like in Manhattan. The creatures, now classified as xenomorphs were far from human. They didn't belong to this world. According to the report, they were an alien species that had come to earth A long time ago in an attempt to "colonize" part of it. There were many variants of them to be found but the ones encountered in the artic a few years ago were fully grown already. They had been frozen and moved to labs for future research. Lynn shook her head at this. Mankind, trying to grasp and seize forces that they shouldn't even know in the first place, as usual. It was no surprise that things went like they did and now they had to clean the mess, sending her and Dutch to take out the specimens before they took over the city and required a nuke to be put down.

"Sir, we're almost at the drop point. The altitude is right, shall we commence the jumps, sir?" Asked one of Dunn's men, private Hugh as he approached the corporal. He put a hand on his shoulder and replied.

"Yes, it is time." He then turned his attention to his field soldiers, which were Schaefer, Kurosawa and a few others. "Get your equipment ready and say your prayers, we're going down."

Dunn couldn't have been more right than that. Just as they began to take positions for the jump, something struck the plane, causing an explosion in the back. He quickly turned to see that the back of his plane was catching fire. There was no time to waste in planning now, everybody got up but the turbulence shaking the plane made it hard to stand still, causing Dutch and Lynn to fall backwards.

Dutch wrapped his arms around Lynn, trying to protect her from the fire. His new molded body could take it so he used himself as a shield for her when the fire rose.

As they shook, Dunn grabbed private Hugh and yelled for the crew to follow his instructions.

"Everybody jump! Now! I'll handle the crates and get the others!" Private Hugh did as told and so did the pilots after exiting their cabin. The other soldiers soon followed but when Dutch and Lynn came out of the fire, there was a problem.

"Our chutes got burned down!" Lynn told Dunn. He quickly annalyzed the situation and grasped the solution. He removed the parachute he was using and handed it to Lynn.

"Share this one!" He exclaimed.

"But what about you?" Dutch asked out of concern.

"Just go!" He said impatiently. Dutch had no other option than grabbing Lynn and jumping out despite her complaints and pleas to help Dunn.

As the two fell to safety, Dunn rushed at the crates and dragged them with him from a rope attached to them before going back to the exit while the fire engulfed the plane.

Dutch opened the chute he was given while still holding Lynn. They began gliding down just to see the plane explode right away on their helpless watch. The impact and shockwave shook their fall a little, causing them to land on other street.

Dutch and Lynn looked around for a moment, hoping to see where the wreckage of the plane and the other soldiers came down. Lynn then pointed at where the package and possibly Dunn's body must have landed together.

"Over there." Said Lynn as she began walking carefully towards the crash site.

"Wait up, liutenant! Be careful, we don't know how many beasts have spread over the site already." Dutch said, pulling out his assault rifle and giving quick chase to support his partner.

They ran a few blocks until they came across some hostiles on the way. The xenomorph. Just what they were expecting. Their terrifying and threatening figures were all over the place, lurking in alleys, hanging from light poles and standing tall on top of cars. This was where the perimeter got set.

Both Dutch and Lynn realized the danger they were in as the alien creatures began congregating in front of them but they also noticed that the plane's wreckage was right past the xenomorph swarm.

Lynn didn't take her eyes off the enemy, neither did Dutch. They just backed away a couple of feet, aiming their weapons and ready to fire at the first sign of trouble while the xenomorphs just keot examining them afar.

"Have you got this, Dutch?" She asked her partner.

"You can bet I do."

"Good." She said with a smirk, but just before she got to pull the trigger against the creatures, she saw something out of normal.

The creatures all turned around, taking a close look at something strange going on between their numbers. Before they knew it, one of them got it's head ripped off, spine still sttached to it. Green acidic blood was dripping all around. The body and then the head hit the ground with a thud and then a barrage of bullets found it's way through another xenomorph's head, fired with extreme precission.

"Is that...?" Asked Dutch in shock before getting interrupted with the answer.

"Yeah, it's Dunn." Said Lynn, surprised to see him in one piece after the explosion of the plane. Not only was he surprisingly alive and kicking, but he had close to no scratches whatsoever or any sign of broken or injured bones. That and he was displaying and incredible strength as he tackled a pair of xenomorphs against a truck and slammed their heads together until they broke.

More xenomorphs went running at him in an attempt to overwhelm him, prompting him to take a different course of action.

"Hmm, no reason to play quiet anymore." He mused to himself before something unbelievable happened.

His appearance, as well as his attire, started changing, morphing as if he was molding his own body down to it's features and his clothes as if they were part of him. He quickly reverted to a different and more casual appearance as he punched and kicked the incoming creatures away with his super strength.

Regardless of what was happening, Dutch and Lynn regained their focus and aided him by shooting all the nearby aliens that were surrounding him. Their combined fire managed to bring down a dozen of enemies with well placed headshots.

More xenomorphs stood high on the rooftops, snarling before jumping down to fight. Lynn reacted quickly and pin pointed them, blasting them out of the air and leaving their crooked dead bodies to rain down on the street.

"Good aim." Dutch complimented before turning his attention at their ally, who was being assaulted by many xenomorphs jumping on his back.

Seeing this, Dutch rushed at a light pole across the street and using his bionic arm, he ripped the whole thing clean off the ground and shifted his grip to swing it like a bat against the horde of xenorphs preying on "Dunn", swinging them away like they weighed nothing. He got close and shoved his metal fist through a pesky xenomorph's chest and ripped it's chest open and pulling out it's spine.

Dutch made the mental note to avoid touching their blood when fighting them since it's acidic properties damaged his metal parts slightly. Hended up back to back with the man he used know as Dunn.

"Care to explain some things now?" Dutch questioned, looking around alert for the xenomorphs surrounding them.

"There's plenty of time for that later, right now I'm more concerned about these ugly bastards. Just call me Zeus." He replied. Despite the change in his appearance, his voice remained the same but he spoke with a lower pitch and more grimm vibe now.

"Sounds about right." Dutch said, relentlessly punching away and shooting any xenomorph who dared get close to them.

Zeus thought likewise, morphing his hands into elongated and fierce looking claws. With them he impaled two xenomorphs with a single thrust but he inmediately felt the consequences when their acidic blood began eating apart his claw. With a strong kick, he sent them crashing away into another group of them, pushing them into some nearby cars.

Before Zeus and Dutch got any closer to keep their attack going, a grenade fell down on the surprised xenomorphs, thrown by Lynn. When it went off it blew up the cars, causing a large explosion that caught the aliens in the middle and blasted them apart.

Dutch and Zeus raised their arms and stepped back to protect themselves from the shockwave of the blast. They lowered them slowly as the fire and smoke cleared, looking over to see the aftermath of the explosion.

The whole area was cleared of xenomorphs for now. They watched as Lynn walked through the roasted xenomorph bodies, reloading her gun and approaching them.

"Are you alright?" She asked as she got close.

"Yes, for now." Dutch replied, before turning back to face Zeus. "I think you owe us both an explaination."

"Yeah, so it seems." He told them.

Dutch and Lynn watched as his hands regained their human shape while some tendrils and small tentacles sprouted from him, flashing from his back to close some cuts on the hoodie he was wearing.

"But before that I need you to keep silent about this, if you are interrogated, remember that this conversation never took place."

"If that's your game, then rest assured. We're only here to wipe out the creatures." Lynn told him in all honesty. Dutch just nodded.

"Good. It's hard to trust people these days, but I'll have to conform. I ask for complete radio silence on this." Said Zeus as he neared to pick up the assault rifle he had dropped before while fighting the horde. "Dunn was just an alias, a fake identity, I think you figured that out. Now, you may have some questions but the truth is..."

"Alex Mercer, the bioterrorist and runner from Manhattan." Lynn stated, interrupting the man. "I know about you."

"Huh, so you did your homework. Nice, saves me all the exposition about the incident." Mercer said with a smirk.

"How are you alive? You were pronounced dead after the nuke went off." Dutch inquired. Mercer waved his index finger at him.

"Don't get me wrong, the blast really tore me apart, it turned me into mush. But I had patience, and when the birds came around, I got to consume just enough mass to regain my original shape. I couldn't just show my face around after that, though, could I? Being declared dead was an advantage."

"So you made up a new ID." Dutch presumed.

"That's right, but I didn't stop at one. I needed a way to keep myself informed, well aware of the government's next moves. What you think you know from what the high ranks told you is irrelevant once you have the facts. And the facts are, the military and their underlings were responsible for blacklight. There were other runners before, things and monsters they wanted to keep from becoming public for their own sake, like your little tangle with the jungle hunter back at Vale Verde."

Mercer's words held true, Dutch knew that much. As hard as it was to admit, his government had been playing them for long. Mercer was a known bioterrorist but it was likely that the military had used him as a scapegoat for their true intentions with the virus. Biological weapons, that was so typical of them.

"And then they send in the Blackwatch to clean the scene and cover up their involvement." Lynn guessed.

"Bingo." Mercer said, almost with an eerie grin. "I might be a monster but you can bet that my makers are worse, and so are the guys who made this whole mess. Those things we were sent to kill didn't just break free by chance, and the plan didn't just catch fire all of a sudden by accident. I don't know what's going on but I plan to find out just like I did in Manhattan. You're free to help or stand aside."

Dutch and Lynn stared at him shortly before giving him a response.

"Okay, let's say we trust you, are we going to keep going with your original plan?" Lynn asked him, choosing to follow his lead.

"Yes. You'll be reporting to your superiors and giving them some words every now and then, make them think we are playing along while we cut through the ugly bastards and locate my men but behind the scenes, I will be digging into them, checking what they're up to and closing this hell hole for good. Can't have another Manhattan happening." Mercer explained to the two carefully, sharing with them his plan.

"Well, technically you're still in charge of the operation. Orders are orders." Dutch said in agreement.

"Good. You know the drill." Mercer then reloaded his rifle. "To the core, I suggest you stay behind me for cover unless you want to be live bait."

Mercer had discovered that the xenomorph didn't show up in the thermal scope, apparently because they were cold blooded creatures. They also had the advantage of having acidic blood, so Mercer would have to watch his step and refrain from touching their insides. This would prove a good challenge for him and the soldiers, but they were up to it.

The trio ran some blocks, with Mercer slowing down his pace just enough for the other two to keep up. They came across a few xenomorphs on the way, most of them scattered, separated from larger groups. They were dispatched quick and efficiently. Their movement had to stop at some points to check for survivors, they hadn't gotten lucky with that for the following five minutes.

After covering a considerable distance, Mercer signaled Dutch and Lynn to stay still and keep quiet since his radio had just received some signals, coming from the men under his command.

 _"Corporal Dunn, do you copy? I repeat, corporal Dunn, do you copy?"_

It was private Hugh. Dutch and Lynn just watched silently as Mercer picked up and answered the call to reassure his men.

"Affirmative, Hugh. I'm with Schaefer and Kurosawa. We are not too far from your position. What's the situation?" He asked.

"A shitty one, chief. The specimens are surrounding us. We can hold up but not for long."

"Understood." He then motioned towards his two companions to follow him. "Let's roll, we've goot work to do." Lynn and Dutch nodded at his.


	2. In the Jungle

Chaos had ensued in the streets soon enough. Alex, Lynn and Dutch rushed inside a small pharmacy as fast as they could, carrying a few of the wounded soldiers they were searching for. Some of them bled profusely and they were lucky because the xenomorphs could have done much worse hadn't it been for Mercer's interruption.

After running down many blocks with Dutch and Lynn behind him and fighting some xenomorphs to gain experience for future encounters, Alex had gotten to his men's location and extracted them before it was too late.

Alex wasn't much of a people man but the men he carried had trusted him their lives.

Lynn and Dutch were surprised to hear that they knew Mercer beyond the whole corporal Dunn fachade.

The men currently were private Hugh, in charge of communications, liutenant Smee, weapons specialist, private Bill Wilkinson, assigned as the sniper and strategist and sergeant Callum Ittin, charged as the pilot.

Hugh was alright, if only a little burned in the chest area after a xenomorph had spilled acid on him. Kevlar had saved his life but it was quickly decomposed by the powerful alien acid.

Alex had to admit that their acidic blood was a major bitch but it wouldn't get the better of him. Those fucking bugs would get zapped after he had adapted.

This was no different from BloodTox, he just needed time to work it out and get around it.

To Mercer it was improvise, adapt, overcome and finally consume. The xenomorphs would get their due, and learn to not fuck with ZEUS.

Such creatures aroused his interest ever since he picked up the assignment working as Dunn. Cross waa of big help too, giving him some insight from his superiors and what they were plotting. He also provided him with men. Men that didn't fear punching the government in the dick and switch to a better leader when the ones they had were acting like daft cunts. He liked that and he respected it.

After some handy hacking from Dana, the Athena to his ZEUS, Alex and his band of merry men got several steps closer to the epicenter of the new worldwide scheme of biological weapons: Alien tech.

Now Alex had previously fought, brutalized and effectively consumed member of the species know as Yautja or "Predators". They provided valuable info about their dealings with secret organizations and corporations, which involved payments of their technology. Such thing in human hands was meant to be bloody bad. Alex himself was living proof of what they could do wrong.

After some infiltrations and spionage, Alex arranged some business between "Corporal Dunn" and the corporation in charge of acquiring alien weapons for the government.

The corporation showed him pictures and he figured out this was some next level shit.

DARPA, CIA, NSA, and now the Corporation. The bastards saw another weapon and tried to seize it. It took pulling some strings, as well as some spines to get to the bottom of this whole thing.

Danger. A hot sensation of danger was what Alex perceived when he stared at the xenomorphs. He liked it. Disturbing creatures of dangerous habits but also a great opportunity to mess up plans that could start a new Manhattan while also getting a feast out of it.

Humans wouldn't be the only thing afraid of him soon.

But today Alex was fighting to keep his unit alive while still trying to solve the huge puzzle that the corporation had in mind. Even if it meant wiping out the whole xenomorph species.

"How are we with the bullets?" Lynn questioned, wanting to know the survival probablities of the squad.

"Well enough but we ain't killing a whole city worth of those piss ants with what we have." Replied Hugh while putting Smee down on the floor so he could regain his strength and be treated properly.

Smee had gotten his shoulder pierced severely by a xenomorph's tail. It wasn't that bad but Smee and Lynn were disinfecting it to make sure it didn't get worse.

A xenomorph broke a window and tried to get in but as it crawled in, Dutch gripped it's neck firmly, snapped it with his bionic arm, then reached for a powerful bomb he had crafted out of the materials in the pharmacy and shoved it in the creature's jaw before throwing him outside and letting the explosion take out more of their ranks before scaring them away in a burst of flames.

Now that's what Alex called style. He felt the urge to step up the slaughter but realized that feeding wouldn't be easy. The acidic blood ruled out a feast for him. He could try to consume one of the xenomorphs and then take his time to adapt but that would render him vulnerable, meaning that he would rely on others to defend him and he didn't like the ring of that.

So he settled for the safe way. He picked hus rifle and went Commando against the breachers, delivering only precise headshots to avoid wasting ammo.

The pricks were sturdy but that was no issue. Those were big bullets he was firing, at their weak spots none the less. During the heat of battle, Alex wondered how the xeno's managed to see. Was the odd orb placed on top of their faces some sort of ocular organ? Did they eco-locate? He figured out it wouldn't matter, once they occupied their place inside of him, answers would flow. Just had to wait.

"Come on, bring it, you dickheads!" Alex shouted being carried away as he saw most of the xenomorphs wander away or march off, having recognized his threat. "Where's the fun now, huh?"

But Alex got a response once he saw what looked like a more advanced and lethal branch of xenomorph, standing firmly and roaring before rushing at him like a wild Hunter. It was over two meters tall, easily towering over Alex, who cursed his measly body of a scientist, and even Dutch. It was bulky and had a voice that sounded beastly enough to make others sound like whimpers.

Now that was what Alex wanted. He opened his arms in a pose akin to that of the Cristo statue of Brasil before yelling with a fierce intent.

"I've got your medicine right here, boy!"

Lynn didn't think too highly of Mercer's sanity. He was a mental genius, but his state of mind concerned her from past choices. But not even then she expected him to batshit crazy.

The grunt of a xeno slammed against Alex head on, almost tackling him off his feet but not quite.

His feet got buried under the concrete down below, quickly moving back from the impact and leaving a trail of grinded earth in the pharmacy, before shifting his weight and using the creature's own momentum against it by throwing it against a wall, leaving massive dents and cracks.

Before it even regained composture, Alex was already on it, punching and stomping like a savage at inhuman speeds.

The creature soldiered up and shoved it's claws into his torso, trying to push him back but Alex was faster and after the thrusts, he elbowed it's head, kneed it's jaw and wrapped his hands around the neck in a mighty guillotine, then twisting hard and severing all bones in the neck and head, killing it real good.

Before he turned, another xeno hopped behind him, trying to chokehold him and rip off his head. In a quick response, Alex elbowed it's chest with strength to break it's ribcage and internal organs, reached for it's head and nailed it with a fatal knee.

The blinded creature staggered before eating a shotgun shell from Hugh, which splattered some brain matter that Alex watched interested. Maybe he could settle for an active brain as long as it was low on acid.

Before anything else, another xenomorph broke through the walls with zero warning and ran against the squad with his fanged tongue sticking out but he was quickly intercepted by Dutch.

He catched it's tongue with his bionic arm in a brutal squeeze and then with a mighty pull he ripped it out, with some organs attached.

"These ugly motherfuckers." Dutch said as he dropped the chain of gory fragments he had pulled.

Okay, so maybe Schaefer wasn't specialist Cross, but Alex had to agree that he was the next big thing if not in a league of his own. Now those were the methods.

There was no time to celebrate him however, because before they could move further, a series of tails and linbs came down breaking through the ceiling and tried to nail the squad.

Thanksfully, Lynn reacted quickly and shot off a head as soon as it popped up. But that didn't stop more of them from keeping the assault.

Seeing as they began getting closer and more overwhelming and how both Ittin and Smee were being cornered, Alex stepped up and going forwards, unleashed a massive surge of his tendrils and fist whips, which quickly covered most of the structure at an incredibly fast pace.

Lynn watched amused how Mercer's trump card worked, impaling all xenomorph life forms in the area and brutalizing them until they could move no more. She could hear Alex swearing while at it, a little pained from exposure to the acid but driven in his intent regardless. It kept going like that for a while until things calmed down and Alex was sure every damn mutt had died off.

Dutch took quick looks around to make sure they were safe for the time being, and they were. Now they only had to patch up their boys and maybe keep rolling afterwards. Dutch wasn't too sure about wether he should wait longer with the crew or keep going on despite having a few injured men. It was up to Alex and he would have to respect his choice.

It was kinda funny but after his tangle with a predator, Dutch didn't think anything else would surprise him, didn't think there would be anything crazier than what he saw in the past. Then Manhattan happened, he then actually met Mercer in the flesh and now he was witnessing the sum of the government's attempts at creating monstruosities. But he liked the kid. Human or not, he had the guts to face the crooks in charge of the system and win after kicking them where it hurt.

Alex was pretty damn bored to say the least but he was patient. He had to wait for his men to get in better shape.

On the meantime, he talked a little with his allies, mostly about stuff that made Blacklight curious. As the viral organism it was, it's hunger for flesh and DNA was only rivaled by Alex's very own scientific curiosity, passed down to him from Dr. Mercer.

"You think after I'm done here I should try and breed Xenomorphs with Yautja?"

Alex asked Lynn as she and the others sipped from their water bottles.

"That would be fucking disgusting. But yeah, maybe your soldiers would get better from that. But that's the thought process that led the pricks in the corporation to pull this horseshit." Liutenant Kurosawa was very vocal about her thoughts on the whole ordeal. Alex and Dutch got to know her better and learned she was part of a special operations unit in Japan until her crew got shut down. She killed some nasty creatures in her job, ones that wouldn't come to light or be seen anyday.

That fierce look of danger and wild in her eyes reminded Blacklight a little of his sister, except that Lynn's line of work was more in line with what Blackwatch did. She was like a female japanese Cross, something Alex could respect deeply.

"Is there a thing you don't want to produce to bring hell on earth?" Dutch asked out of fun after hearing Alex' whole talk about harvesting and breeding.

"Robots. Yeah, I'd like to build robots but I haven't learned how. Perhaps you could point me towards or give me the details of your friends at Cyberdyne. Heard the nutjobs are working on some next level A.I, shit is probably going to build an army and take over earth." Alex joked, albeit a little serious on the last part. Dutch just chuckled at the thought.

"Can you imagine an army of me running around with sunglasses and guns? They're probably into that." Dutch joked further.

Hugh joined the conversation, though changing the topic a little to ask his friend and superior a question.

"So how's Dana doing?" Alex shrugged a little at this.

"Fine, if only a little worried about me. She wanted to stay under the radar so I tried to let her have it but it didn't work for me. What can I say? Some birds can't be caged or changed. I needed this, and the fuck-ups at the Corporation just gave it to me. The golden opportunity to expand and predate while taking a dump on their plans."

"Have you talked to her recently?" Asked Smee, who was starting to feel better.

"Not lately, no. But maybe she needs time for herself. I'm always watching over her but I also have to avoid dragging her into my mess."

Alex replied sincerely.

"Just get back home alive and with a good story for her and it will be alright." Assured Ittin to make Alex feel better. He knew what it was like to have someone waiting at home. Callum Ittin was a man on his 30's that had seen a lot of crap in the field and was only in action when he deemed it necessary. He was about a head taller than Mercer as he was in base form, though a little shorter than him as Dunn. He had a clean short beard, bald head and somewhat muscular look. He wore a green cap.

"Hopefully. I really hope so. But only time will tell. Heard she's liking her new apartment and job."

Personal talk aside, Smee was urged to bring up a relevant issue about their whole ordeal that they had forgotten to talk about.

"Are we not going to talk about what happened to our plane? You and I both know the Black Crow doesn't malfunction like that, Alex." Said Smee, making his point clear. This called for Dutch and Lynn's attention, since they didn't stop to think about it.

"Of course it doesn't. We got rigged, cheated by those bastards. They didn't need us here, we were just the carriers. Now what actually matters are..."

"The boxes?" Lynn inquired, flexing her neck's tendons as the realization struck her hard.

"Correct." Alex answered with a sly smirk.

"What was in them?" Lynn asked further.

"Don't know, I do care though. They said it was a bomb just in case we didn't make it and the outbreak got out of hand." The walking virus kept explaining. Hugh then spat.

"It's bullshit, all of it, fuck them. Damn fools were planning this whole crap and used us as scapegoats. Must be some crazy ass abomination, a new runner or something, boss."

Right, that could be it, not for sure but if it was that then they were seriously screwed up in the mind. A runner, free roaming to assimilate xeno's and become as strong as Zeus? Bloody hell, Alex actually entertained the thought. Didn't enjoy it though.

"Did you try to search what was inside the damn boxes?" Dutch questioned, now more concerned.

"Tried, yes. But the thing is, it was set to blow up had we searched in, rigged to open only when it reached it's destination. I found it but it was empty. And that's what worries me."

"Shit." The crew heard Dutch muse.

Wasting no more time Alex then jumped to his feet and moved towards the dead aliens on the floor.

Dutch and Lynn wondered for a moment what his plan was but Smee and the others knew all too well.

"Mercer, the hell you think you're doing?" Lynn wondered out loud.

"His schtick, liutenant. What he was made for." Hugh cleared out as he and his teammates prepared for the grim sight they were about to behold.

Black and red tendrils rose from deep within Alex. His body was shifting and preparing for feeding. The sound was plain disturbing, his flesh and skin opening up and sprouting gory extensions from his self, tentacles made to feast on biological organisms and then add them to it's long list of components.

"Consume, adapt, become." He said as he stretched himself in a dreadful manner.

Most humans would have to fight the urge and natural impulse to throw up, their insides shaking and blood boiling as Blacklight seized a life form. That wasn't the case with the squad. Far from it, Mercer's boys were all to familiar with it from past missions. Not only did they stop giving a crap long time ago but they sometimes even encouraged him to go further and get his meal.

Sick heads, Alex worked with sick heads but it takes one to know one. He was glad about that.

Dutch and Lynn didn't flinch either, they were too hardened he guessed. Good, saved all explainations and basic crap about morals. Nobody would weep for a xenomorph anyway, not even their own would.

"Now listen up, these pricks here are toxic to me but I'm doing this for "the greater good", taking one for the team if you'd like. I need it if we're going to fight them off and get to the center of the city." Alex detailed with an inhuman voice and an omnious tone. Sounded like his already grave voice plus some greater echo and effects. Shit, the guy was for real. "The thing is, I will go through a lot of pain and pass out in the process, falling into an evolution state. A fucking viral coccoon or egg. You can leave my heavy ass here to finish it and I'll catch up with you later or you can drag me to avoud wasting time but I'm warning you two, I kinda weigh a shit load. Your call."

"Don't worry, we've got you." Dutch insisted. If there was someone fit for dragging his biomass across the city blocks it was him. Alrighty then.

Alex nodded, before turning back at the corpses and flashing a nightmare grin that would have made even a Yautja cower a bit. As his features and body mutated brutally while dragging the bodies in, Dutch couldn't help it but say the same he told the Jungle Hunter when they fought.

"You are one ugly motherfucker."

Alex chuckled at this as the dead acidic carcasses were split and taken into his biomass.

"You're goddamn right." Alex pointed out with his distorted voice before letting out a shriek. He then crashed down to his knees as his body became black and went numb.

Dutch did catch him though, before he could meet the ground with a thud. He grabbed the viral abomination tight and turned to it's men, staring at them.

"Now what?"

"You heard the man-thing, we keep moving for God sake." Hugh decided as he got up with his brothers in arms. "Just try to keep us alive, big guy."

"Okay, let's get this going then." Lynn affirmed as she drew her combat pistol.

Minutes later, Dutch was carrying Alex on his shoulders, running alongside his companions through the city blocks. Mercer was pretty damn heavy for a guy of his size but if someone could put up with it, it was Dutch. He figured out the weight was a product of the extra biomass he had just taken in. It was like carrying nine men, but Dutch could take it and still sprint like in a military march without losing the pace. Most would have been grossed out from carrying the viral abomination on their shoulders as it's mass shifted and it's tendrils sprouted making wild and sickening noises. Dutch just kept going.

Using a few charges and the custom bombs that they made at the pharmacy, the squad blew up plenty of settlements used by the xenomorphs to stop their spreading. Lynn figured out that at some point after tge evacuation, the aliens would have to run out of hosts for their reproduction system but they were still kind of a shit load and to her, running down the streets with them out was like free roaming in a purge night full of crooks, only that these were much worse.

"Schaefer, at your six!" Ittin warned as a few strayed xeno's began sprinting towards Dutch.

Dutch rapidly spun around and fired his pistol with one hand in a succession of precise shots that nailed the xenomorph drones until they got killed.

Another one popped into their sight, Lynn spotted it right atop of a small building they were passing by. Just as it screeched and jumped into attack it took a headshot from Lynn, fired from Mercer's weapon

since she borrowed it. The alien fell splattered on top of a car afterwards. Lynn remained alert as the group moved forwards.

She had to admit that she really missed the rush from her old job and fighting there was a blast. But she also had to take matters seriously given their whole ordeal. She was a woman of few words but what she expressed was enough for the crew to get her as a whole. Soldier, fighter, crew member.

"We're getting closer to the square, everyone stay focused." Smee made clear to the squad as he eyed their destination.

By now their plan was to make it deep into the city and slaughter as many xenos as humanly possible and once Alex woke up they would let him do his thing. Then the extraction plan, which included calling Simmons and and have him deploy some more bombs, perhaps even contact Cross so he would let his hounds loose and tear the city a new one.

Alex honest to God loved that plan, but he also wanted to stay and play a bit more with the creatures, see what he could get out from it. Some good laughs, some new slaves, fresh space meat and even new powers. All of that passed his mind as he rested on Dutch's strong grip.

While he was at it, Dutch backhanded another xenomorph right in the jaw, splitting it's head apart in a burst of green acidic ooze. Putting his bionic arm to the test again, he seized and ripped apart a light post from the concrete and tossed it javelin style, impaling two xenos that were getting closer to Hugh, who reacted by drawing and firing against the horde that randomly came from the other end of the street after hiding behind a building.

The rest of the squad joined by firing a barrage of automatic fire, which mowed down over a dozen of them, but the other half was more resistant to the gunfire.

They were the same big motherfuckers Alex faced at the pharmacy and they weren't walking but rather rushing at a good pace despite being about fifteen meters away.

Recognizing inmediately the threat they posed, Dutch loosened his grip on Alex and went over a pick-up truck that was left over there. It was the right size and type for what Dutch planned.

"Hang in there for a sec." He said, letting go of the Blacklight's body and dashing towards the truck. He knew the growing mass of tendrils and messed up flesh wouldn't mind. Now digging his fingers, both bone and metallic ones into the metal, Dutch narrowed his eyes at the targets before throwing in his projectile some good nine meters away.

Lynn and the others watched amused how the truck crashed against the incoming aliens and for a moment they looked about to get flattened. They were smashed and while they weren't dead yet, they soon would meet an end because the oil leaking from the vehicle met their acidic blood. Then in a glorious ball of fire, they were blasted away and splattered against the streets.

One of them flinched but then quickly took an electric baton to the the mouth so hard it got through the back of it's head. A little gift from Blackwatch by the hand of Smee. He spat on the corpses and picked up the pace real fast.

Dutch picked up Mercer again. He heard him mumble words like "Dana" and quickly understood the meaning behind that. Apex Predator or not, Alex still had someone to get back to, which sadly got Dutch thinking he was probably more of a human than he was. At least he was all flesh and organic. And sure, he had some family too, including a brother but they weren't too close at the time. Perhaps he would gather the courage to call them up after this was all over. Perhaps.

'Okay, sleeping beauty, let's keep rolling.' He mused as he once again lifted the heavy ass runner and joined the others in the run.

"Nice throw back there." Lynn told him.

"Thanks, I guess."

After a shorter while of running where they were oddly uninterrupted, the squad found it's way into the central area. Alex thought it was a perfect place to settle down a goid hive or start butchering since the fucking space ants were all over the goddamn place. With his new perks and inmunity to their tricks it would have been a festival. Just like Manhattan all over again. But he would have to focus on the inminent danger and the task at hand. Clean the city, play a little sandbox in there and then go after the dotards who thought it was a nice idea to play with these kind of forces having seen the bloody mess that was Manhattan. Right. And of course, call Simmons for the getaway, duh. But that was still way far away, because the whole place was pumping full of Xenomorph life and they were walking around ravaging everything as if patiently waiting for the squad to fall into their bloated nest.

Bloody hell. Dutch should have expected that, it only made sense for the outbreak to start in such a wide area. Dutch had never seen Time Square in person, but this was like it he guessed. Only with a bunch of ugly motherfuckers running wild and wreaking havoc.

"There's too many of them, Dutch." Lynn warned him. She didn't like that crap one bit.

"Yeah, I know." Dutch replied. "I'm thinking now."

"You do realize it, right? That we don't have a fucking contingency for something that big?" Hugh warned him too. Some aliens were beginning to notice them but the squad refrained from shooting up already since it would have taken away their surprise factor. There was a good distance between the aliens and them but with their numbers it was still dangerous.

"You know, you're not being pretty helpful right now. Like I said, I'm thinking." Dutch's grip on Alex intensified. He considered throwing him at the xenos and have him take out the trash but he was still out cold and besides, he wanted to partake in the slaughter too.

"They won't overlook us for too long." Ittin reminded him and Dutch fought to not roll his eyes on that.

"Just give me a fucking minute. Maybe you guys should back down now, I'll get to you later."

"Not happening." Lynn told him, not wanting to leave a man behind."

"You said you could call a pilot, right?" Dutch asked, to which Smee nodded. "Then do it and get to the chopper. Mercer and I will take out these dickwads. He's about to wake up and it's better if you're outside his range."

As in unison, the Blacklight carrier's body started to morph, having finished the adaptation process. Things were about to get crazier, Dutch knew that and he let the others know too. He laid down the messed up mutated body on the ground as it bloated in biomass and it's skin hardened like carbon and then diamond.

Dutch figured out the runner's body reacted positively to the concentrated hive of xenomorphs in the central and it accelerated the process violently in response. It was as if the hivemind of the aliens tried to reach out to him but he opposed it in disgust, it only fueled his wrath.

And how fucking dare they? Trying to talk to the mighty ZEUS as if he was a fucking drone of theirs, that was unforgivable and they would pay dearly after he got in control of his new stage. He was itching to do so, because that's what Blacklight was meant for, it's whole purpose and way of being. Consume, adapt, become. He was looking forwards ripping those bugs a new one and going as far as to stick it to their Queen so they would get the bloody message straight. Then they would get to the experiments, toying with them like his own bizarre puppets and creating new life. The xenomorph would find a new purpose in the universe and that was definitive.

But as much as those thoughts passed the runner's mind and he entertained them, Alex k ew better, knew that he had to keep it together, for the boys, for Dana, for Ragland, Cross and even fucking Heller.

He wouldn't allow himself to devolve into the same shit bag scum hearted sick bitch that was Elizabeth Greene and he wouldn't be an outcast victim of injustice like P.A.R.I.A.H. Not at all.

He was Alexander J. Mercer II, born from the experiments of a bona fide mad scientist sociopath with a troubled and challenged mind but also a lot of time, effort and resources. He was made and released as the ultimate middle finger to the crap sacks in charge of the system. They wanted a weapon? They could fucking have it and fucking have fun with it, with all that it implied. He had to mess up those who called for it but also make a right for their fuck-up's. And he would have a lot of fun doing it, just like he was about to right now.

The tendrils and tentacles rose and bounded together, reforming until there was something that could pass as a face in that virulent body. Now that his face was regenerated, it went from carbon black with no features to a pale face, which was lit by a sassy nightmarish grin with a good deal of sharp teeth. The eyes opened suddenly and flashed between inhuman crimson with bright to a bright and deadly gleeful green.

The torso and limbs pumped with more of them sick sounding tendrils, all of them forming some sort of organic texture that created what were Mercer's clothes.

At some point there, Lynn found herself to be watching something out of a Stephen King novel. But at least she could keep her stomach in check, which was way more than what most people could say when seeing something like that.

Alex rose to his feet getting in position for combat and the xenomorphs perceived the shift in their enviroment's nature. They were like animals feeling a weather change, only that all that power equivalent to that of a lightning storm was found within the Blacklight's body and they recognized the threat. They began screeching and shrieking before assuming wild stances and turning to their agressor.

"Listen to Dutch, it's better if you're in the sidelines this time." Alex spoke with a distorted and clouded voice that was way different from that of any human. Sounded like his vocal chords were just being formed and even then they were an amalgam of hundreds of different voices. Then came the claws and talons, sharper and heavier than before. Dutch suspected it had to do with the alien biomass he had been putting up and digesting. How was that for an upgrade?

Mercer's constructs were now a mix between what they looked like before and a similar texture to the bodies of the xenomorphs. Alex was just itching to pull a spine rip. But something didn't sit to well on him, something he was sensing as if the skies were about to split and the clouds were going to part to reveal something huge. It was like his heightened senses were picking up a beacon of something to come.

Something that big couldn't be too good. It wasn't fucking natural to him nor the xenos. Their attention got turned from him to the sky as they flinched and yelled to the sky. Alex was about to get why though, the meaning behind this whole nonsense.

He tried to take advantage of the odd behavior of the bugs to zoom into attack and squash them, making a sonic boom. But before he could shed the very first fool in their numbers and get lost in a killing spree, his body tingled even harder and warned him against what was to happen.

All of a sudden and as a major fuck you, a ship arrived right atop the area. An alien ship. It was pretty fine and through the nanoseconds of the happening, Alex thought about how cool it would be to hijack it and use it against the dickheads down there.

His train of thoughts was smashed in interruption when a massive blue light popped from the ship, a blinding light to everyone around the area coupled with some clear and nice sci-fi sound effects. This reminded Alex a bit of the movies he would sit down to enjoy with Dana, but he knew damn well this was for real. So he gathered his thoughts and reacted, putting his armor on and bracing himself in mid air to prepare for what looked like an overheated plasma device that was about to engulf a radius of over twenty-one meters. Lucky that his men and allies were far off enough.

Alex watched as the energy waves traveled all across the area at near light speed giving him only enough time to line his arms to shield himself from the light and it's subsequent damage. The whole event was about half a second long actually, but to the Blacklight it was like a whole minute.

Then the damage came and damn, even for Alex it was a bitch to tank. The aliens that stood at his surroundings were all literally vaporized, giving off only small vapor clouds behind as they screamed in pain. Alex felt his mass get scratch and burned massively but his armor could take it and more so now that the xenomorph DNA got decoded inside Blacklight's system.

The squad had to cover their eyes and stand back to hold up against the flash and the shockwave. To most of them it was a big ass explosion but Dutch actually felt something special, like a deja vú. The whole blast was all too similar to one he had to escape right after dooming the Jungle Hunter. The sound, the radius and the way it went boom, Dutch could almost feel like he was back there again. He did worry a bit about Mercer now that he disappeared from his sight, Lynn and the others could relate too.

It took a short while for the blast and smoke cloud to settle, prompting Dutch to walk in closer to see what was happening, to understand and to make sure Alex hadn't gotten wiped out like the aliens. Just like what the ever loving fuck just went down there? It was insane but Dutch felt like he knew for a fact even though he didn't say it out loud.

After walking several city blocks near the ground zero and passing through the smoke, Dutch looked around to see if there was a trace of the living virus.

It didn't take him too long to find him laying down in what looked like his suit of armor that protected him from the blast. It looked like it wss a part of him, all carbon black with some newly added green details and bone spikes coming out of a few parts. It's head was faceless, all black and devoid of any features linking it to Alex Mercer.

The squad soon followed Dutch and helped him get Alex back to his feet.

"You okay?" Lynn asked, really concerned about what happened. She knew the runner was sturdy but she hadn't been sure he could take a full blast of such magnitude. Then again, he had survived the nuke in Manhattan so figures, the fuck wasn't exactly breakable.

"Positive. But damn, that shit burns." Alex pointed iut as his piece of armor melted into tendrils so he could stretch and move more freely.

"You're full of surprises." Lynn said with a chuckle. But as Mercer's boys checked on him they also noticed the ominous big ship floating right above them, suspended about nine meters into the air.

It was in some kind of stealth mode, in fact, it had been almost invisible to all but Alex who had used his enhanced vision to spot it during the blast.

Fully visible and showing itself, the ship began descending slowly to be right in front of the squad. Everyone stayed alert in case this was an attack because they didn't know what to expect but Alex and Dutch already had an idea of what this was about. The xenomorph wasn't the only extraterrestrial species that mankind came across after all, Dutch himself could confirm that. As the ship hovered slowly until it touched the ground, having the entire squad ready to attack, some sort of entrance was opened, spreading down a ramp for the pilots to exit and greet their hosts.

There was a wide surge of light coming from there and at first the squad couldn't see anything, until Alex switched to his thermal vision, revealing the guests in question. There was two of them and they clearly weren't earthly. Then they revealed themselves to the others, removing their cloak devices and before they were even visible to the naked eye, Dutch had already identified them, glaring at them as he did.

"Friends of yours?" Alex asked, turning to Dutch, to which he replied calmly.

"Not my friends, though I've known them well enough." Alex smirked at that.

"Likewise."

Their dreadlocks, biomasks, weapons and large height were all that Alex and the rest needed to identify them. These were the Yautja, predators and hunters from a far away planet, and apparently they came in peace, helping the squad even. Their hands were up and away from their weapons to avoid any sign of conflict.

Many thoughts passed the Blacklight's dark clouded mind as of the meeting but the most important one that he was vocal about and voiced out loud was quite simple.

"You sons of bitches stole my damn kills!"

But what was actually surprising was the smaller Yautja's reply, which came in perfect english albeit distorted.

"I called dibs on them." Yeah, these guys and the runner would get along swimmingly.


	3. Who's in Charge Now?

**Chapter 3**

 **Who's in charge now?!**

So apparently the space lobsters knew their names and could speak perfect english. Nice. Truly fascinating for Mercer, though he now wondered if they remembered that one of them he fought and consumed years ago back at Manhattan. Was a tasty guy, gave Alex some nice secrets and info about life on other planet, his "contribution" would be remembered fondly.

What was even more interesting for Alex was how gutsy these two had been by taking all those fresh kills away from him in a potential field of screams. Such audacy.

So there were two members of the Yautja as they were called in front of him and his men. One was bigger and bulkier than the other, had a more battle focused look. There was something about those eyes and that pose that gave him a military look that resembled many military officers that Alex had seen before. Very authoritarian. He also appeared to be the older one of the two, which automatically made the cocky bastard next to him the rookie for Alex. This was the Warrior.

The other one had a more "hip" vibe going for him. He was shorter but very imposing to a human regardless. His armor wasn't clean like the other one, it was rather dirty and even adorned with some stripes, necklaces and small bony parts that belonged to some poor beastly bastards. He was the Hunter.

Everyone in the group could tell what these two were, but it was Dutch who was more familiar with their species after a deadly tangle so many years ago. He had gotten over the trauma, at the time he was calm and collected but he still remained on guard. There was quite some silence between both parties until the Warrior broke it with a deep chilling voice, one that could have sent shivers down a lot of spines.

"Alex Mercer." He said glaring at the viral abomination, before turning to the cyborg on his side. "And Alan Schaefer."

"You weren't all that hard to find." The Hunter supplied in a cold manner.

"We weren't hiding to begin with." Dutch replied.

"Okay so what the blazes is going on here?" Wilkinson asked out of concern about his team leader's predicament. The two predators in front of them were clearly not moving a hand against the squad but he just wondered the reason for this.

"Aliens, Billy boy. These two have come to earth to rendezvous with us." Alex cleared out turning at Wilkinson before quickly turning back to their alien guests. "Isn't that so, boys?"

"Think this through. We came here looking for a good hunt, then trophies out of it but most importantly, because we need to cleanse a pest." Spoke the Warrior type, going straight to the point, and Alex really liked that.

"So the xenos, they're your hunt now?" Alex inquired further.

"More like a sickness we have to get rid of. It is our duty and mission, and for that we could use your aid." Said the Warrior in that wise and authoritarian voice. When listening closely, Alex got reminded an awful lot of Optimus Prime from those silly Transformers films he would watch with Dana back at home. Pretty alien sounding, if he could use that term right.

All of this had Alex thinking and questioning if he should attack and consume the Hunter and the Warrior right there or just keep listening and see if they could be more useful alive. He opted for the second because the creatures had aroused his interest. Before he said something, Dutch spoke up too.

"Then why don't you bomb the whole place with your toys and call it a day?" He asked, considering the massive space they had vaporized free from xenomorphs. With weaponry like that they could end the outbreak in minutes.

"Let me guess, some sense of honor." Ittin said in a bold guess, figuring out what the Yautja were thinking.

"Aye. A good hunt is it's own reward, you all should know that." The Hunter explained, before turning back to Alex and Dutch. "We know you killed some of us in combat in the past, and for that we salute you and invite you to the hunt."

Oh, how bloody considerate from them to address the facts like that. Alex could really understand what the deal was with the creatures, they were driven by honor, but as admirable as such thing is, it gets people killed often. Alex didn't mind playing dirty, retreating or taking other measures to earn a victory. Still, he could live with teaming up with the predators as long as they didn't get on his way.

"Alright then." Alex agreed. "Tag along if you will, but don't take any kills from me."

The Hunter predator showed what seemed like a smirk.

"Bet I can take more lives than you." The hunter said in a sassy manner. So far Alex felt like the Hunter, being the youngest, was something of a sassy bastard who liked to compete in any way possible but Alex could put with that. It was on like freaking Christmas.

"Challenge accepted." He responded with a grin.

"So that's how things are? We're going to cleanse the whole city with them and you're already betting on who will kill more?" Lynn asked, calm but a little taken back by the idea of Alex and the Hunter wanting to get the highest kill streak each. Alex just chuckled in a honest yet somewhat perverse way.

"We're with you, sir." Smee clarified, showing support of Alex.

"What are our orders?" Asked Hugh, curious about their course of action. Alex snorted before giving a straight answer.

"First thing's first. I may be armed to the teeth quite literally but you guys will need a temporary upgrade to keep up, isn't that so?" Then Dutch motioned towards the ship.

"Show us where you keep the goods."

The Warrior complied and then motioned for them to follow.

"As you wish."

They all entered the ship. The crew walked through the short halls in the ship, looking to get the arsenal that was offered and admiring the particular alien decoration. It included skulls that used to belong to Xenomorphs and some others that belonged to unidentified creatures, ones they knew nothing about though it also aroused Alex' interest. The Warrior led the way and with a subtle press on the buttons of his wrist computer, a wall opened, revealing some very particular and inventive pieces of arsenal.

"Man, now we're talking big." Mused Ittin taking a good look of approval towards the supply.

There were some big guns that were of Mercer and Dutch's liking. Hunter nodded and motioned towards the stock, giving the squad green light to pick up what they needed.

Wilkinson was the first one since Alex patted his shoulder like a father giving a son the choice of what he wanted from the toy store.

Being a sniper, Bill picked what looked like a precision rifle, long but with a good handle and grip and also a pretty good sight. Looked ready to scope a xenomorph skull as soon as it popped into the radar. It was a plasma carabine of sorts.

"A huntsman's firearm. Good choice." Said the warrior in his calm and respectful manner. Bill just nodded. The others soon followed and chose their weapons wisely, settling for what the predators had to offer.

After a while they exited the ship, everyone packing all they needed and more. They exchanged a few quick looks of approval as they made their way to the heart of the disaster. Alex had witnessed a change on his plans but he couldn't complain. This was shaping up well but he still had quite a lot of trash to take out.

"Not to seem lost here, but where are we going to now, boss?" Smee asked his hooded master for he really didn't know what they were up to but he was pretty damn loyal about it.

"To the heart and nests of those shit stained bugs wherever they are like we rightfully should, Smee. I say we take the subway and blast our way through their masses, see how they hold up and for how long." Alex told Smee as he drew the plan in his mind, checking the pros and cons of it all. But then he heard what seemed like a freaking chuckle coming off the Hunter predator.

"Nice suggestion. How about we move onto the actual orders?" The Hunter remarked, being all bossy and cocky as usual. He then turned to the Warrior as if waiting for him to say something. "Sir?"

"Our main focus is on the sewers, we go in and see if there's any stray prey. We kill them and then rush into the subway to burn their nest to ashes." The older predator explained and ordered, which led Alex to lift an eyebrow.

"So you're the boss now, huh?" Alex questioned, having heard the instructions. He could follow orders if needed to but his boys could only trust and follow one man and that was him. "We're some kinda, hunting pack now?"

"If you say so." Said the Hunter without too much thought. Alex was actually and legitimately starting to like the duo. Now he just had to find a way of dealing with them in good terms and device a plan that wouldn't get the whole squad fucked up.

"Now that sounds just fine but I have an even better idea, we split." Both alien creatures looked at Alex after hearing him out, all too interested in what he had to propose.

Not too long ago, the duo had been travelling through space in search for a good hunt that would be worth the effort. The Warrior had been teaching the Hunter to perfect his skills, to grow not just physically but also mentally and then expand his horizons. When their race told them about the xenomorph outbreak beginning in Earth, they saw the perfect opportunity and they seized it, knowing what to expect.

For many members of their species, Earth had been a golden mine of opportunities. It was the place to go when looking for a different and more revitalizing challenge. So many other hunters could bear witness to that. But there were the hunters who just fought for fun and then there were those like the Warrior, ready and dedicated to fighting for a greater purpose, a worthy cause and a good battle to remember. He also saw the opportunity to teach the Hunter something valuable that would be special for his development. He was still young but he was growing more mature with each conflict.

So yeah, both Hunter and Warrior had their motives to be there and most importantly, to bear witness to the deadly beasts that lived on Earth, specially in the form of the heavy mass of Blacklight that was Alex Mercer. He puzzled them, he just did and they were curious as to where that would take them. Then Schaefer too, the man had proven to be a fine example of what a warrior human was back when he survived and won against the Jungle Hunter with his sheer wit and skills. Alan Schaefer was nothing short of a legend to the Yautja.

If they had been lucky that day, it was for being in the company of such intriguing specimens of fighters, born and raised on Earth. So when one had a thing to share, they were attent to it.

"You say we split, how do you propose we do so?" The Warrior asked out of curiosity on the virus' methods, listening to his suggestion.

"Glad you asked." Mercer replied with his arms open and a smile on his face. "You know the sewers and the subway are connected by tunnels. You two can take Schaefer and his liutenant with you and head into the sewers like you say you want. Me and my boys? We can take a different approach. Those dirty bloody mudbags we want to kill? I already consumed a whole lot of them and I got more than just a stomachache. Their minds are all wired up and crap like a hive but that means mine is too. Like a web of intrigue."

"This web of intrigue you speak of, can you tap into it? Locate and track down our prey with it?" The Warrior inquired in realization. Alex then looked at him.

"Aye. We save a lot of precious time, pin them in both sides and fronts, then squash them like vermin and fucking laugh at it." Alex said in affirmative. "Is that cool with you?"

After some thought the Warrior nodded in approval. With that settled, Lynn inched closer towards Alex before questioning him.

"You sure you guys can handle all that by yourselves?" To that Alex turned to face Lynn and then cocked his head in an odd angle.

"That a serious question now, liutenant?" Alex replied before patting her shoulder and shrugging. "We'll be fine, now move it."

Lynn began walking along the predators as they headed for a nearby manhole. Before joining too, Dutch shook Mercer's hand with his bionic arm.

"Good luck." He said to the viral abomination with a smirk. Alex gave him a smirk too.

"Good hunt." He shot back. "Come back in one piece, tin man."

"Thanks." Dutch then joined his half of the group as Alex walked off with his men at his side and disposal.

"This is going to be fun, ain't it?" Private Hugh remarked.

"That it will, private." Alex told him. "The time's ticking. Don't know about you but after we're done here I ought to get a nice payback on the cunts who set us up here and then call Foyet for the pick up."

"Amen to that." Agreed Ittin, very supportive of Alex' words.

After a while of roaming with an eye out for xenos, Alex and company made it to the stairs leading down to the subway. They could already feel the presence of hostiles down there plus what must have been a whole nest for the xenomorph to spread their numbers.

Everyone got ready and went in to carry out the cleansing. A few Xenomorphs moved from the shadows, standing on guard for the entrance but this act was proven futile when they were quickly dispatched by Alex and his men before they could even growl at them.

It was pretty damn dark down there. That would have been an issue had it not been for the whole set of visions Alex had developed. Thermal vision would have done them no good against the enemy, the xenomorph were cold enough that they did not appear on a predator's thermal vision, they were like corpses but at the same time they were pretty damn livid when close enough.

Thanksfully, Alex had made other arrangements for solving that problem. All the xenos he had ripped and consumed previously had proven valuable because he could now tap into the hive mind linking them, which meant that nothing would protect them from him. They were safe no more.

Using this newly gained talent, Alex sensed every single threat in the eviroment. They would pose no threat anymore, they had lost the surprise factor and would pay dearly for it. Still, Alex had to be careful to keep his crew alive and warned from the attacks. Give them specific directions on where to shoot and fuck up.

"Sir, do you see them?" Smee asked, keeping his finger on the trigger and very attent to any incoming aliens. He and the others were pretty much forming a circle and moving in synchronization to cover all positions.

"Yes." Alex then focused for a moment and had a glimpse of the first enemy. "Bill, at your twelve!"

Bill did as told and fired his sniper against a stray xenomorph that had been crawling at him. His weapon proved powerful when the first round lodged into the large skull of the alien, splitting it and then the second one blew it all apart for good measure.

Another xenomorph came from the ceiling down on the team but Alex catched it by the skull and crushed it between his palms like a grape fruit. So far the team was holding up well but the darkness was still overwhelming them.

"Shouldn't we light up a flare or something?" Hugh asked, concerned by the lack of visibility that made it hard to keep up with Alex' instructions. "Or would that attract them?"

"They can detect us no matter what." Alex replied while lifting the meaty remains of a xenomorph and consuming them. Then an idea went through what he called "brain" and it was like the proverbial light bulb of thought had lit up on his crest.

A series of fleshy tentacles constructed from his chest and his back formed and then wrapped around the waists of his colleagues. A security rope. They didn't mind, he had to ensure they wouldn't all split during the attacks. He then lit up a flare and tossed into the direction he planned to take.

It was down the railways where the hive prowled. Lurking in the shadows of the tunnel and crap, Alex knew them all too well. He knew their kind now more than ever. That was their destination. He had to thank the predators for the valuable weaponry they supplied him, specifically in the form of the power charges they gave him that were now stored safely within the biomass that composed his body. Who needed pockets with that, huh?

"We head in there and put our charges up to exterminate the freaks. It's gotta be close and deep so that there will be zero chances of survival within the blast radius. The whole hive will be buried in rubble and debris if we do it right."

"All clear then." Said Bill with a nod. Though the squad had flashlights attached to their weapons, they would still have to rely an awful lot on Alex for visibility. The tunnel was dark and the beasts in there were all too sneaky to let themselves be sighted easily.

As they walked in closer, Alex kicked the flare a lot further away, making the darkness of the pit way more bearable due to the light. They were getting closer when they saw some odd shapes away from the light shaking and trembling in an eerie manner. It took them less than a second to realize those were xenos trying to get them by surprise by playing dead. With a series of precisely placed shots, Ittin and Smee made it official. They kept going.

A lot of headshots later, in the middle of the murk, the squad began noticing more and more what they were looking for: a hive. Some eggs were laid around the place, and they knew exactly what they were meant for. The damn face-huggers were all mowed down and reduced to wet chunks of mush on the floor before they could even try to jump. Hugh made sure to shoot every single one of those bloody death traps for good measure.

Alex kept leading the way until he felt the next big threat, stopping his steps cold and gesturing for his men to do so too. No one could see anything moving around, not even a bug of any sort, it was like a phantom had just decided to prey on them. They looked around for a while until Alex clarified the true general direction of their attackers. He turned to his men to warn them in time.

"In the walls!" He yelled at them. Everyone then got in position and watched how a bunch of xenomorphs broke through the walls in a wild frenzy.

The ones attacking them were no random jobbers, they were soldiers, praetors even. Alex took notice of that and realized that he and his men were in the right direction and doing well, the presence of enemies that dangerous could only be justified by the existence of something truly important and worth defending.

Basic shit.

With that in mind, Alex rushed at the bigger and more threatening foe he glimpsed and formed his blade, ramming it straight through the praetor's chest. The aliens he had consumed once again proved to be worth the pain and very useful because his Blade was now stronger and unaffected by the acid of the creature. It tried to grip his shoulders to fight back but Alex raised his Blade all the way up, slicing the xenomorph in half from the waist up. He quickly turned to see how his men faired against the other attackers in that close quarter brawl. They were firing at the praetors non stop, jumping and rolling for cover as they did. Their shock batons would be very useful for when the aliens tried to get all close and personal.

With a growl, Alex shoved a hand through the closest xenomorph's chest, seizing it's spine, then with a wild yank he ripped it off with it's skull fully attached and then he swung the whole thing hard enough to shatter it to pieces against some ugly bastard's elongated jaw.

He formed a pair of Hammerfists and with a vicious look he went on with the fight.

"Okay. So who the hell is next, huh?!"

 **AN: That was a bitch too write due to very poor circumstances, but I've done it. Couldn't leave you hanging that bad, it's bloody february now, I just hope you can forgive my delays. I worked on other stories over the time that you could check but this was my most followed one so I had to prioritize it. Do leave your thoughts and input too. I will aim to be more efficient from now on and update faster, I owe you guys as much for your support. It really means a world to me.**

 **The pen or The sword: I really took your words into account, the xenomorphs alone may not be a huge threat to Alex right now but there's more to it. Got some twists and stuff in mind.**

 **Paradox009: Thanks, mate. Very touching even. I do keep a lot of what you say in mind.**

 **DragonLordRynn: Now that's just freaking awesome coming from you. Wish you the best with your works too. Glad you got the reference, lol.**


	4. Daylight

Alex had been very expressive. Whoever the hell was next in his kill count didn't matter, he only focused on keeping the number high, himself well fed and his boys alive. So far the tunnel had become a bloody slaughter house, on his favor that is, which was good for him and his squad.

With his Hammerfists out and ready to bathe in the blood of the scum, he eyed how a swarm of praetor xenomorphs kept coming from the walls and tried to congregate around his men during the fight. With a quick sprint, he jumped at their position, landing over a ton of smashing fun on a small pack, which splattered them like balloons. The nearby bastards were knocked back by the shockwave he caused.

His men stayed close to him for good measure thanks to the security rope he had sprouted and wrapped around them. Despite their limited visibility, they were very precise with their take-downs. Few bullets were wasted in their spree. One of the praetors came awfully close as it clawed viciously at Ittin but the man ducked under the swings and jumped backwards, then shot off his attacker's face and kept his assault up. Alex had to admit, the man knew how to dance.

More incoming enemies joined the battle as they bull rushed into attack. Alex recognized that fighting style, those were the big grunts of the species like the ones he fought back at the pharmacy. He rushed right back into them like a madman with his Hammerfists clenched. It was on like a damn football game.

Now those boxing classes with Hugh back at the hangar would pay off. One thing was consuming men who could fight and a very different one was putting those skills to the test by applying them into the field.

He screamed like a beast as he ran into the xenomorph forces, stopping a few feet away from them to floor a double fist punch against the ground that caused a mighty shockwave. Alex wondered how many of those the structure could endure before the rubble came down on him but that wasn't the point at the time.

The incoming grunts were shaken and lost balance after that stunt, giving Alex opportunity to duck under a punch and respond with one of his own, nailing a grunt in the gut. The impact broke big part of it's chest and caused it to bend over in pain. Alex gripped it's neck and snapped it with a guillotine move, killing it.

The next grunt went for a wild right hook, which Alex blocked with his left fore arm and countered with a spartan kick. As it staggered, Alex jumped over it's head with the extreme skill of an acrobat and wrapped his legs around it's neck, brutally breaking it before catapulting himself into another grunt with a jaw breaking flying knee and smashing it's skull apart with a double fist punch.

But an angry grunt tackled him head on towards a wall, trying to overpower him but Alex delivered a series of shattering axe strikes to it's back and lifted it up. Alex growled as he ripped the grunt in half and consumed it but more grunts rushed at him at high speed and tried to gang him up into a corner.

"Sir!" Yelled Smee as he saw this and tried to help him out but before he could try, a grunt went for him.

Without much time to react, Smee ran at the beast and did a quick slide under the creature's legs, slashing it's groin with his combat knife. Once behind it's back, Smee fired a good bunch of rounds from his plasma cannon, eliminating that and some other grunts.

Wilkinson kept sniping the furious praetors that lurked in the shadows while Hugh provided him cover fire. When Ittin turned to help Alex he watched as the runner battled several grunts and praetors trying to get the best of him.

Alex shoved a boot through a praetor's stomach, headbutt other one's skull into mush and proceeded to uppercut a pair of grunts hard into the ceiling and then stop a savage punch from another grunt. He earned a shriek from it when he crushed the arm in his grip and then yanked it out clean, using it as a blunt weapon to bludgeon some more alien foes.

After hearing plenty of necks and skulls break, Alex discarded the improvised weapon aside and used his Whipfist to tear the praetors hidden in the ceiling to shreds. The last one of the random grunts in the area tried to tackle him from behind but this time Alex was prepared and with a mighty backhand of his Hammerfist, he spun around and took the beast's head clean off.

When his men finished clearing that area of xenos, they got a little discouraged to see an advancing pack of more coming right on at their twelve, shrieking and growling like they got triggered. But what cheered the whole lot of them up was that the bugs had screwed up.

By marching head on they lost their stealth and became obvious targets, clear and blatant enough that a squad of outstanding marksmen like Alex' men could mow them down before the threat got off hand. They took offensive positions and aimed their shots well. Alex just spat on the enemy's general direction while standing on a power stance.

"Let's show them who's the apex and who's the cattle." He told his boys with a grin, forming his Blade once again.

All things considered, he could only imagine that Dutch and the others were probably having an easier time in the sewers. May have been too soon to say so though.

The sewers were a fucking chaos. Dutch was sure of that. The predators had been pretty hard with their approach. They had the right tools to dispatch the horde of xenomorphs but that didn't mean the job would be easy.

While considerably well illuminated enough for them to maneuver, the sewers still presented and unfavorable setting full of vicious creatures prowling and waiting for the right moment to attack.

The four of them had taken down quite some attackers so far and now they were heading deeper into the dark hive inside. The Hunter and the Warrior made short work of some very nasty enemies on their way down thanks to a deadly combination of their disc blades and shoulder cannons. Dutch and Lynn weren't left behind either. They knew how to handle themselves well enough but now things were getting more dramatic.

Rather than having only a few stray foes reach for them occassionally, the four of them were battling non stop against a swarm trying to thwart their progress into the right direction. Despite this, they kept running and killing their way through.

"So this is your concept of a good time, huh?" Lynn asked as she dodged a long barrage of strikes from xenomorph drones while shooting and stabbing back.

"Verily. Isn't it yours?" The Hunter replied before launching his disk on the run and letting it soar, decapitating several drones in one go.

"That it is." Duch supplied while clutching a praetor's neck and slamming it's face into concrete hard enough to splatter it.

As a grunt tried to tackle him, Dutch seized the grunt's jaws and during a brief struggle, he ripped them open, splitting it's head in half. He launched the headless corpse as a projectile against the incoming foes. A few more fiends growled at him and began an assault but Dutch fired them up with his cannon and divided their numbers.

The Hunter went right ahead and launched himself with a flying kick, taking off the head of a distracted xenomorph. When he landed, he avoided a furious slash from a praetor by vaulting over it's head and ripping it off in midair. He then ducked just in time to dodge a deadly acid spit from a shrieking drone and responded by splitting it's head in two with his disc.

As they ran that deadly gauntlet, the Warrior's attention was caught by a pack of abominations they did not expect to see.

A damn pack of crocodile xenomorphs.

They knew how the aliens worked, they infected organisms and when their sick little babies came out, they inherited traits of the creatures that were forced to give birth to them. In this case, bloody crocs. Warrior actually chuckled at that, there were crocs in the sewers after all. Everyone else always thought that to be a myth.

The others had just noticed that when they inmediately saw how Warrior jumped into the water with his spear drawn like a madman to fight the grotesque creatures.

He nailed one in the head with his spear tip and twisted it to kill it for sure. In a quick burst of his insane reactions, he caught the tail of another foe and chopped it clean off with his wrist blade, earning an intense scream from the beast.

But the pack was still too big for him and before he threw his next strike they were already on him, savagely striking him with their claws and fangs. But he could take it and so could his armor. He brutally defended himself, delivering quick but lethal blade strikes. He began fending them off with his shoulder cannon, making big holes in their heads and chests until they began retreating.

With inhuman accuracy, the Warrior tossed his spear against the running prey, impaling two of them through the chest with the very same spear. The rest were picked off by a barrage of precise and lethal shots fired by Lynn, wasting no bullets in her assault.

Her cannon halted when it needed a reload but instead of quitting, she switched to her knife and soared through the air, bringing the blade down on the neck of a running alien in an aerial takedown. She rammed it through the head, killing it and then she pulled the electric blade out and tossed it at a hissing alien, piercing it from it's throat to the back of it's neck.

The Warrior regained his focus as he heard a loud conmotion and ruckus not too far away. They were on the right track and they couldn't waste any time.

"Over here!" He yelled as he ran through the water towards the source of the enemy. The other three followed his lead and rushed through the area, killing a few random xenomorphs that got in their way.

"Are we getting close to the Queen?" Lynn asked.

"Positive. I can sense it." The Warrior replied.

It didn't take them too long to realize that Mercer's little campaign with his boys was actually producing favorable results. When the four got to the holes crafted by the xenomorphs, they realized that the creatures were being driven off, their attention was caught by something much bigger and threatening.

Yeah, definitely Alex' doing, they just knew it.

They were thankful because that made their pass a whole lot safer. Their prey were all heading into the tunnel, called upon by the slaughter that Alex had started and possibly by the Queen in a defense attempt.

Now the party was getting started and Alex and his men were handing free shots for everybody. With enough cover fire provided to him, Alex ran fast at the wrecked train and it's wagons where the savage xenomorph horde came from. With a battle cry and his Hammerfists formed, he crashed with the force and speed of a bullet train.

The result was obvious but amazing regardless. Alex went straight through and smashed every xenomorph stopping his advances. All the nearby ones were pulverized, over ten of them reduced to little bits and acid on the floor. Alex had entered the train that was now a pumping hive and he planned to kill his way into the core. He then flashed a grin that could have easily intimidated even the creatures he fought.

Oh, it was game on.

The aliens he had consumed had granted him a handful of new abilities too, it was up to him to use and develop them to their peak and though he loved to stick with the classics, he was dying to try new things on the fly.

So his body shook for a moment, vibrating as a whole in the process and as it did, the incoming praetors drew their claws and ran at him.

Good. No one should miss the fun he had planned.

They were about two meters away from him when he opened his arms and a massive surge of devastating tendril with an awfully sharp end sprouted violently from his chest. The deadly weapons were shot forwards and erected, reaching their way through several skulls, brains and hearts. All of them brutally pin pointed and torn apart by the Breachers as Alex had now called them.

Yeah, Breachers sat well with him, had a good ring to it.

A lot of the enemies went down without much trouble. That was certainly productive and didn't drain him that much. The Breachers were mostly shaped like the tail of a xenomorph except they were longer and bigger. The chaos he could unleash with them was pretty remarkable too.

"Very well, boys. That's our call. We didn't come as spectators." Smee said with courage and adrenaline flowing through him, earning nods from the others as they shot forwards, eliminating all possible targets coming from over the train or trying to run away from the sheer butcher Alex was giving them with glee.

Skulls popped and brain matter flew while the crew moved. After some shots they had to roll for cover, they reloaded and tried to keep themselves out of range for the drones at the offensive, puking and launching acid as a projectile against them.

Bill raised his rifle just in time to parry a deadly strike from a praetor trying to get them out of their cover. The advanced metal that the rifle was built from proved to be a match for the fatal edge of the xenomorph's claws.

With no previous warning he blocked another series of close slices, pushing back and outmaneuvering the beast with swings of his weapon. He managed to shoot off both of it's hands. The alien growled in his killer frenzy but Wilkinson saw his chance and rammed the cannon of the weapon straight into it's throat, then quickly reloaded and fired away, blasting that head to bits. He jumped out of the way to avoid further acid projectiles from the rest of the aliens.

Hugh aimed for the roof of the alien infested train, making sure to shoot and catch the attention of all drones and praetors atop.

Alex was having a good time slaying and smashing the husks of xenomorphs that were set on stopping his progress. He pretty much danced through them avoiding the swings of the praetors coming his way and responding with insane blows of his Hammerfists. He easily tore most of them to shreds.

A handful of them tried to sneak on him from the train's roof and windows yet they only fell victim to his Breachers, sprouting from his back to nail every damn bug that attempted to make a move on him.

A whole new pack of grunts went for him with an ill intent. Eyeing that, Alex buried his Hammerfists hard on the ground once again and knocked every single one back with a mighty shockwave. He launched himself forwards and began pounding and stomping all their skulls to mush.

Not wasting any time, Alex picked up the pace with a sonic boom and kept dashing into the core, ripping all the hostiles he saw to shreds with his Blade. Heads flew and torsos were split in his path.

His men hopped on top of the wagons and unleashed their fire power against the crawling beasts from that vantage point. They all could feel the entire area shake from the sheer force of Alex' punches down below.

Good thing though, because it took all the attention of the xenomorphs away from them. Ittin smashed a hole into the wagons below them and dropped some grenades on the enemies, which in turn blew them apart and made Mercer's way easier.

The team kept going forwards and noticed how their surroundings resembled more and more the hive belonging to a xenomorph Queen. It was unsettling but it meant they had gotten there. Alex kicked his way out of the train and greeted his squad after consuming a few more xenomorphs to tie the loose ends.

"We made it here, this is the place." Smee stated while looking around at their messed up scenario. It was the perfect habitat for a Queen to begin her homeostasis.

"The charges, sir. Do we plant them now?" Wilkinson asked, seeing that the place was right.

Alex complied and pulled the weapons of mass destruction off his biomass. He looked at them closely before replying.

"Not yet. Not just yet. I'll take it from here, you guys get evacuating." He then let his Breachers ripple carefully into the ceiling above them, making a good sized hole for their exit. "I need to consume the Queen first and learn what I can or else this will be a hollow win."

The four nodded in understanding and complied without arguing.

"Do what you have to do, sir." Smee said, patting his shoulder Alex carried them all together and jumped out high, taking them through the new exit. The crew waved at him in a sign of good wishes, to which he waved back before jumping back into the hive to close it for good.

He fell back into the nest of the murk and made his way into the small tunnels in the walls that led to the core. He was smelling the Queen's presence in the distance, he could sense her, hear her call reaching to all her brethren. That sixth sense was tingling pretty hard right now, Alex felt as much.

He sprinted down the path carefully, picking apart any creature dumb enough to pretend to hurt him. Darkness was no longer an issue without his men being affected by it, so he progressed at a quicker pace. There was some rubble blocking his way but he handily pulverized any rocks or walls blocking his going until he got to his destination, his feet falling into what seemed like an actual nest with eggs and all.

Now was really the time and place, his insides told him so. The overwhelming murk would have stopped most people from processing what was there but not him. Alex and the aliens now shared a mental link, he was all seeing now, plus all knowing as far as the xenomorphs went. That was a valuable perk, he thought. His knowledge of biology had now extended to the unearthly, the extraterrestrial.

His senses cut through the cloud of mysticism that flew around him.

"Bingo." Alex mused with glee and as if in unison, the Queen snarled at him. She was protected by a group of grunts and a few praetors hanging off the ceiling. Alex just stood in his position unmoving and unblinking, analyzing the situation.

As he did, a random grunt jumped at him but displaying a disturbing calm, Alex just dodged aside slashing the grunt's legs and then brought down his blade in a swift strike on the inmobilized grunt's head. There was a brief silence and then the grunt's face fell to the ground, followed by it's damaged husk. Alex just shrugged at his work.

He was ready to take down some more.

 **AN: Another update, and a quick one too! That's new for me. This chapter might be a bit too short but I'm saving the fight with the Queen for the next episode. I also need to rewatch the AvC game walkthrough for inspiration, very important too. Hope you all enjoyed, see ya!**


	5. The holes

About a hundred xenomorphs in there, protecting the Queen from Alex's clutch. All hissing with acid shooting forwards. Their hive was so reminiscent of the infected bits of Manhattan that it was a blatant invitation for Alex to give them hell and more.

And so he did.

The alien numbers rapidly dropped when Alex shot forwards to seize their Queen. They were still a lot but that was good, Alex needed to raise his reserves somehow and he could really use the exercise. Was never keen on getting lazy or slacking in power.

So he leapt at the first one, bringing his Blade down on it, splitting the fiend in two. Three others joined the shit fest just to be sliced in half with the same slash and rapidly consumed like all the others.

One of the grunts came and yet it didn't even have time to raise it's fists when Alex rammed his Shield into him like a speeding truck and then brought it down on the alien's neck, instantly beheading it.

When a bunch of praetors came running to him, Alex formed his Whipfist and let it soar through the air. Instead of slamming into his prey, they reached for the ceiling, the act followed by Alex pulling it down hard and causing a minor cave in that smashed several aliens.

The next thing the aliens saw Alex come up with was a large boulder. They couldn't begin to move in time when the living virus seized the massive boulder and with fingers digging into the stone, he threw it forwards, reducing their front lines to acid paste.

But as fun as the whole feast was, it didn't take Alex's attention away from the Queen. He narrowed his eyes at her as he sunk his claws into a foolish drone's heart and pulled it off viciously with his eyes still on the bigger prey.

With his sight set on the true target, Alex charged and unleashed one of his Devastators, taking a large amount of the xenomorphs down and clearing the path towards the Queen.

He ran to her with his claws and talons coiling but then something caught his attention. Something loud and hard.

One of the walls exploded violently, reducing rocks everywhere to dust scattered all around. Alex could make four figures out of the dust cloud, which he quickly identified as Dutch, Lynn, the Warrior and the Hunter.

"I'm back!" Dutch happily reminded him while blasting the incoming xenomorphs to pieces with his grenade launcher alongside his team.

They had gotten to the meeting point and were now handing out the charges meant to be placed, meaning that Alex had to work this out in record time before they actually blew up the area. But he smiled.

No problem at all.

With his claws drawn, he shot forwards and slammed them down hard into the growling Queen. Both of them were propelled straight through a wall as a result. The left a large sized hole in there, formed by their combined mass.

His claws and talons fiercely dug into the Queen's husk and drew acidic blood before he was shoved back wildly. The Queen wasn't like the average xenomorph, she was harder and sturdier, making it more difficult for him to cut through and consume normally.

Before the smoke had cleared, Alex had to react to a savage tail strike from the Queen. He caught the alien's limb between his hands and began crushing it, then used it to to spin her around and launch her away at high speed, her back slamming hard against the concrete and stone to the point of cracking it.

But that wouldn't hurt her enough and Alex knew it, prompting him to snarl and follow with a ruthless speed tackle that shoved the pair back to where they started.

Alex saw himself forced to parry and deflect a claw strike from the Queen. He responded by forming his Hammerfists and then it became a close quarter combat. It was game over for the bitch.

The others stayed back, knowing that Alex had the situation under control and began planting their charges. He parried and countered a few slashes before he decided to put a Hammerfist through the alien's torso and then tackled it off it's feet.

Now to get to the fun part.

The Queen's hard claws tried to dig into the runner's mass but he would have none of that shit. Because he was sneaky as he was slick. It was like the Queen couldn't even possibly get a grip on him as his hands dug into her chest and broke it apart to begin the consumption process.

The tendrils sprouted and dug in, giving Alex all he needed to get as he moved into the vanishing form of the Queen. That pile of gore was absorbed into his being and with it, valuable information.

The pieces to complete that little puzzle of his.

He ripped out the charges from his biomass and took them, carefully planting them in place. All the charges together would set off a chain reaction that would vaporize and bury the whole underground, Alex knew that. Wasting no time, he prepared for the big exit after setting the timer.

The predators prepared their evacuation too. Having planted their charges, they ran alongside Dutch and Lynn towards the improvised exit hole that Alex had made. Dutch grabbed Lynn and shot his bionic arm's grappling mod, propelling them out while the Warrior and the Hunter did so by leaping several stories far through the exit.

The countdown was almost over so Alex stretched his legs and went out in a thunderous jump, leaving a sonic boom as he obliterated the extended stone ceiling above him in a matter of a millisecond. He soared dozens of meters high into the air and touched the ground just an instant later.

He left a crater under his feet as usual, then he ran wild alongside his squad to get away from the blast. They did so successfully and watched the fire rise and the streets shake violently, crumbling down and destroying all the creatures below them in an expanded radius.

That was hell of a view for Alex, one that reminded him of the nuke that would have went off in Manhattan had he not stopped it.

Felt good for some reason.

Then they all ran without looking back, to avoid the

quake forming right under their feet. It was shaking several city block and causing many streets to come down and crumble to dust. Everyone moved fast towards a safe distance and then watched the event play out.

Alex' men met with the rest of the group not too long after, in an area that hadn't gotten obliterated or buried in rubble from the nearby buildings.

From the looks of it they had been gunning down a few more foes. The area was officially clear but that was only one stage of the job.

"Enjoying the view?" Alex joked about the extermination process they had witnessed. Hugh chuckled.

"Like hell we are." He replied with the other three giggling.

Lynn turned to the Warrior and the Hunter for more instructions regarding the whole mass extermination plan they had been cooking up.

"So what's the next step of your master plan?" She questioned.

The Warrior raised his view towards the weather and time it had become. It was night, dark and lovely but also dangerous for their next moves of approach.

"You sit and wait. These hunting conditions aren't good for all of you." He lectured as the murk fell upon them, slowing their progress a bit. "You have fought well but you shouldn't risk yourselves too much. Do not strain."

"Hate to burst your bubble, Predator Prime but I'm still alive and kicking and full of gas." Alex quipped in, reminding his alien acquaitance that he did not need as much as rest to have his energy at max for the rest of the night.

"Yeah, sir. Why so?" The Hunter argued too. The Warrior snorted.

"You two can venture through the dread of night if you want, but it wouldn't be wise at all to stalk the prey with these settings. I take no chances with them." The Warrior spoke up once again in a moment of pure combat wisdom. Alex furrowed his eyebrows and then looked back at his fighting force.

They were fine but somewhat tired. He knew they could probably keep going but there were way more xenomorphs to worry about during the hunt. It got him to think.

He wasn't Blackwatch nor the damn government. He would not hold the people around him as accountable or risk them for petty reasons. Granted that they could make it as they did in the underground, there was a difference out there.

The xenomorphs in further areas to explore would be of a deadlier breed, he was sure of it and could bet on it thanks to what he got from the Queen. Enough intel to make the fight half won, but still a half left to win.

He was tapping into the hivemind and sensing the brain patterns of the fiends to come. He could go for it and jump into the fight, but the others? He felt like they were better off taking the night, he owed them some of that. Some of them did have families. So did many of the men he killed and consumed but Alex' mind went back to Dana. He would feel like a hypocrite unworthy of her help if he only thought of his and none other's closest ones.

With a deep sigh, he came back to the reality and joined back the talk.

"You heard him, the guy is right. All of you should stay here until it's time." He chose and stated out loud for the others to process. As pumped as his men were to keep the fight up and as bummed as they may have been, they got the message and knew deep inside it was probably right.

Added to that there was the fact that the whole crew had gotten close to no rest for a long time now. It would do them no harm, quite the opposite actually.

What set them apart from Blackwatch operatives and other fools was that they wouldn't jump into a sure death for petty reasons if there was nothing to be won.

"Understood, sir." Said Bill in a serious tone as he and the others nodded.

"So what will you be up to?" Lynn asked Alex, getting a quick response.

"My duty. I'll be isolating the area and consuming as much as I can get." He explained. "There are some other hives that I have to bust too and I'm working on a time limit. If my guess is right, there'll be a bombing tomorrow and we need to get this over with before that."

"Then I'll be joining too. I won't miss the hunt." The Hunter voiced, joining the discussion. He then turned to the Warrior. "Are you going to stay here?"

The older and bigger predator nodded.

"You've learned well, now this is your chance of proving yourself." He stated. The Hunter chuckled.

"Good. Try not to die, everyone." He said.

"We'll be seeing soon, take care." Alex told the rest. And so he left and ventured deeper into the jungle of a city with the Hunter, planning to raise up the kill count.

The Warrior sighed and then dropped in what looked like a meditation stance. They had made a small campfire out there with whatever they could find and craft. It was warm.

Dutch looked at the Warrior for a moment. Since there wasn't much else to do and Alex' taskforce was dead silent, he decided to inquire a little and start a talk.

* * *

A bunch of office men in coats and badges had congregated in their headquarters, all attent and ready to oversee the experiment they had planned for who knows how long. Things had to go down smoothly and precisely as they were indicated.

It had been a long while since they had set the whole operation in the nearby city and placed the factors necessary to unleash the outbreak. The xenomorphs had proven to be valuable specimens as seen by their role in the Yautja's hunt and their potential as weapons was incredible.

So after properly evacuating their people from the town and leaving the civilians to their luck, they began watching over their newest progress in the biological area.

Entire xenomorphs were shaped and amassed in the labs, giving birth to sub-species and different types that were never seen before. All of this thanks to their exchanges with the Yautja, which revealed to them plenty of secrets that would be exploited to their fullest.

Now that step one, the outbreak was finished, it was only a matter of going through the next steps of their master plan and seeing how they played out.

With their focus on the alien creatures, their top scientists and investigators began wondering what could be achieved by mixing their very own biological weapons with the ones they were acquiring. In a moment of clarity, they realized that maybe the key to the next stage of the evolution of their viral projects was in making good use of the alien creatures and their bodies as carriers of their newest infections. After all, their tests with humans had been finished already but new methods were always welcome.

Dr. Randolph supervised the new project and got plenty of scientist from Gentek and other companies to begin a brainstorm, finding a definite solution for all of the involved.

It was no news that the world's governments were still developing weapons. If Manhattan taught them anything it was to be more careful but not stop. They couldn't have runners like Greene or Mercer going crazy and making a mess so they focused on the basics, which meant making a virus compatible with their xenomorph guests.

The Yautja tech provided to them was fully operational and gave them more ideas on what to do.

The sleeper had awakened. It was an unpleasant sleep that he had but it was long over. It picked up the pace and analyzed his surroundings, getting a good grasp of where it was and it's possible targets.


	6. The longest night

Alex and the Hunter prowled the grounds with darkness and silence through the night. The murk was all over and around but it didn't affect them at all. Alex had developed thermal vision and the Hunter had it equipped in his biomask so if anything they were ready and on point. They ran at a good pace while also keeping it quiet enough so that the prey wouldn't see them coming.

At times like this, they both felt right at home.

A small pack of xenomorphs were creeping in group, moving towards others without a right aim or direction. They were entirely oblivious to their incoming butchers, who already had a plan drawn and were about to execute it.

The Hunter silently motioned and signaled for Alex to get to the opposite end of the street, in order to block and take any runners who felt like fleeing. He silently complied. Now it was game on.

The Hunter drew his wrist blades and with some handy foot work of his, he moved right behind of a xenomorph drone, clouded in stealth. Hell, he didn't even need the stealth cloak for this one. Before the sound of metal shooting off even got to the drone's ears, the Hunter had already closed the distance and then his blades dug into the drone's neck. The cut and slash were hard enough that with a little extra effort, the Hunter had decapitated the drone.

Before the large odd shaped head could fall to the ground, the Hunter kicked it like a ball towards the other bugs of the kin. The Hunter was kind of a joker but Alex liked it. The guy rejoiced in a good hunt just as much as he did. Alex smirked at the distance.

The rest of the drones turned around and watched as the Hunter taunted them openly, ready to start a carnage against them. They hissed out loud, only for the Hunter to rush and hop on top of one's head, putting his legs against it's shoulders and burying a cold blade down it's mouth and throat.

In quick succession he jumped into another one with a tremendous force, knocking it off it's feet and pinning it as it painfully shrieked at the next move. With a strong slash, it's head came out rolling.

The Hunter ducked under some nasty claws coming at him and in response pierced his attacker's chest and ribs before busting them open and killing the fiend. Another two lunged at him so he swept one's legs and rocked the other one with a spin kicked that fell it on top of the other one. The Hunter cut their brains apart with the same thrust.

Many others tried to run wild away from their unfavorable slaughter seeing that they were losing, only for three of them to get flattened like bloody pancakes by the sheer force of Alex coming down from a rooftop on them. The next one took the massive Blade to the chest that was then lifted and used to slice it in half.

"Now you're fucked." Alex stated more than said. With the same Blade he cut off a pair off heads as he switched to his Hammerfists. He so typically brought them down with an incredible force that raised many of the preys ahead of him high into the air and then with his Breachers he violently yanked them back at the ground, collapsing them into mush and puddle.

Drones were much easier to squish than grunts so he used that to his favor.

He kept his frenzy going, punching and splattering any bug around him like balloons with his well charged punches. The Hunter caught up and launched his disc, slicing of many of their heads in a row until his projectile got buried into concrete, prompting him to go and retrieve it.

Alex called for his Whipfist and unleashed it against the incoming creatures called by the sound of the slaughter. With practiced ease, he raised it over his head and spun it around like a lasso, letting it soar and take out the enemy. Praetors all around got reduced to ribbons and disembodied limbs. Alex noted how much more deadly his Whipfist had become, sporting what seemed like some heavy barbed wire around it.

Alex then shot it off at the side of a building that was right above the crawling beasts. Without much thought, he yanked hard and witnessed with glee how a massive chunk of concrete was ripped from the main building to smash the bugs with it's weight and derivated force. There was a loud splat and Alex grinned at it.

The Hunter threw a praetor over his shoulder, crashing it hard on the hood of a car and then he brought down a fist on it's neck, snapping it apart with zane. Another one came along and it was met with a brutal spin kick that dislocated it's jaw, then a second one that split it's head in wet chunks. The Hunter kicked like a truck, Alex noted.

The Hunter ran forward against the opposing horde and cut his way through them to get his disc back. As he did, Alex made good use of his Hammerfists and weaponized a big truck parked nearby. A loud ruckus was heard as the vehicle was sent through the air at high speed, splashing the streets with acidic blood from the dead praetors.

The Hunter took quick aim with his shoulder cannon and blasted the truck into a glorious ball of fire that engulfed many of their foes. Whatever was left of them was soon consumed by Alex into his mass for good measure and refilling purposes.

More loud shrieks and hisses were heard across the street. He and the Hunter turned quickly to watch how a swarm of xenos plagued a building near them. Alex spat on their general direction and reached for another vehicle to weaponize and launch as a torpedo. His eyes caught a glimpse of a dump truck and that put a smirk on his face.

He got to work and the Hunter watched as his fingers dug into metal to get traction as if it was plastic. Then the whole mass was lifted and raised over his head. Alex' shoes dug into the asphalt, cracking it in many places through his sheer weight. The viral abomination motioned for the Hunter to move aside and he complied. Then there was the the toss. The vehicle crossed about a hundred meters in one second and crashed hard against the wall crawling horde.

"Care to give it some light?" Alex asked calmly, pointing at the massive damage produced by the truck entering into the building's offices.

The Hunter nodded after getting Alex' message and then fired a plasma round that instantly hit the projectile. The result was amazing, like fireworks. The loud boom and shockwave of the explosion rocked the whole building and was felt over their position.

That was just something else entirely. A sight to behold.

The bugs were all fried and scorched in a matter of seconds.

Alex and the Hunter shared looks for a moment and then they agreed to move on with their hunt.

Unknown to them, a newer and deadlier specimen made it's way through the ruins. One so different and cloaked it's mind did not respond to the same Hive as the xenomorph.

The Warrior sat comfortably next to the rest of the group, sharing more and more about his and the Hunter's life stories. He told them of many great hunts they had enjoyed that spanned across the galaxy. Some of them did involve the xenomorphs.

"But there we were, holding onto the beast for the life of us. It came down to who killed who and we had to be fast about it. So I held it even harder and told Hunter to go for it. He looked frozen but he got it. He got a rock, the largest and heaviest he could find and he put it down on the bug's skull. Then again. And then a lot more times just to be careful, because you can never be too careful. We know what we know and it's a fact that they are only good when dead. Ugly sons of bitches."

Dutch, Lynn and the squad of Alex' men paid attention to the words with legitimate interest, digging all the details. Each one of them had plenty of stories to tell, their eyes had seen some nasty stuff, that much they had in common but as eager as they were to open up about that, there was more appeal to hearing the tales of an elder inter-galactic alien warrior with a kill count good enough to back up his title.

"Hunter grew some guts over the years. He had to." The Warrior went on. "He learned a lot."

"Looks like you guys had hell of a story. More than one actually." Lynn remarked with her interest shown.

"I bet Mercer would have a couple of things to tell us too." Dutch said in a change of topic. Smee took a sip of his water before he spoke up.

"That he would. The boss has been a constant pain in the ass of both government and military alike. The kind of cash they spent in trying to fight him was insane." Ittin then joined the small talk.

"But it seems like it wasn't insane enough. He's always one step ahead, he's here and there, he could eat and impersonate anyone he wanted even in the cabinet or the White House. How he hasn't done it yet is beyond me."

"He is the man in charge. Hardly anyone crosses him without it coming right back to bite them in the ass." Hugh supplied.

"Tell us some more." The Warrior asked in his relaxed state.

"What's the story between him and you? Anyone he cares about or that he is close to?" Lynn asked too, to which Bill smirked.

"The five of us go all the way back. It's kind of a funny story actually but I won't let it drag for too long." Bill said, picking up where the others left off and going into more details about the start of their happy little family. "Not for the faint of heart but it's cool."

"You guys seem very fond of him." Lynn observed as they spoke.

"Must be our loyalty. Our story started long time ago in a godforsaken rectum of a land, pumping full of Infected." Wilkinson began telling.

"Somewhere down the war road in the middle east, go figure." Smee added as if he could relive the whole experience.

"He helped us against the slugs. He popped in the middle of the sand like a damn phantom and ate most of our enemies. He made it clear that he came in peace and we had no reason to think he was lying since he didn't move as much as a tendril against us boys." Hugh said, going on with their story. "Said he had to take care of a few stray dogs, you know what I mean?"

"We weren't as blind or dense as our bosses thought. An outbreak going up there couldn't be an accident or chance, them scientists and leaders were playing with some shady shit, trying to be God and then nature fired right back. Should have know all those little nightmares in their shop would come back to bite them in the ass. And it happened."

"So you say that you played along with Mercer?" Lynn inquired. They all nodded.

"With someone like him on our side, keeping the radio silent and our superiors in darkness seemed like a damn fair trade if you ask me." Smee stated. "Besides, we hated the fucks, this was a golden chance to hand them their own asses in a silver platter with no one knowing."

"We killed and shot our way through the horde for a few days and tagged along with Alex. He had made up this whole corporal Dunn persona to go unnoticed and it worked." Said Ittin as the explaination as to how Alex had covered his tracks.

"No shit." The Warrior mused. Ittin just smiled and continued.

"We got to the core, helped him put down the Hive and blow the freaks sky high and clean the scene. We made up some excuses, lied to cover Alex and then we even reported having found an M.I.A soldier from the last batallion sent, which was Dunn obviously."

"We could have stopped there after all the crap we saw and it would have been wise maybe but it wasn't for us. That was exactly the kind of shit we signed for and why were all pariahs amongst other recruits. They said some things about us being screwed in the head. " Hugh elaborated further.

"They were kinda right though." Wilkinson joked with a chuckle.

"What you see is what you get, a bunch of psychos following a bigger one's orders. And it felt right. Then we tried the private sector under Alex' orders and that led us to a whole lot of odd jobs, which brought us here." Ittin finished.

"Best job I've ever had." Hugh claimed with pride.

"Best job I've ever had." Said all others in unison, almost like robots. Dutch could really see now how they got along so well with Mercer. It was their call of duty.

"And they think my people are weird." The Warrior mused once more in supreme wisdom.

The Collector prowled the grounds all night, looking for good prey and cattle at his disposal. He had spent too much time in rest, sleeping to replenish his great force after the last drop he was given. The land in which he was now was so perfect to him that his whole mission felt just like a vacation.

Ever since the plane carrying him crashed down, he took it as a personal task to prey on whatever creatures the area had to offer. Xenomorphs of many kinds who shared a lot of the same blood and body parts that he had but not quite similar to him though.

As he moved from roof to roof his purpose was so clear to him. He had been made by the brightest minds that Gentek and the Company had to offer with the sole intent of ravaging infected lands, infected by his own makers to then feed on the weak minded organisms here and there. As of now he had killed and consumed hundreds of xenos in this city alone but he felt bad.

There should have been more.

The research team had assigned him to eat as many different branches of xenomorphs as he could, ones that they themselves unleashed upon the city just to test him even further. He got into their Hive mind, he could tap into it now freely and it helped him as a sort of radar to pin point other potential targets.

With each organism he took in he felt better progressively. Stronger, faster, deadlier and even smarter. A good boy had to eat after all and there were perks to it.

But there was something he found intriguing, earlier that day. When he tried to get into the Hive and feast upon the bugs there, he was taken back and surprised to see people getting ahead of him in his own hunt.

It was strangely familiar to the Collector. His makers had given him the knowledge of many of the previous strains or viral creatures they had engineered. Names like Redlight and Blacklight circled in his mind and led him to even more names. Elizabeth Greene, Pariah, ZEUS.

ZEUS.

Having focused enough to sense the living beings that were now part of the alien Hive mind, it didn't take him long to isolate and identify the little light of virus that had made it into their link. That was ZEUS that showed up in his radar now. The viral abomination represented the Blacklight, he was the runner and carrier, a force that nothing in Manhattan could manage to stop. So many groups were tasked with his capture and so many had failed because they didn't even come close.

The sad irony for him was that the government had found the solution to that, not in sending in a large amount of soldiers after him or even an army of them to neutralize the target, but rather in sending in one good asset for the job, one that was complete and treated genetically to compete against ZEUS. When the time came for them to clash and look into each other's eyes, the Collector could only hope that the runner didn't disappoint him like the xenomorphs he now found himself feeding upon.

The info he gathered on the subject of ZEUS should do, but that didn't top studying him closer and more personally. For short bursts he managed to look at his face and he felt his joy, the pride he took on the kills. He could relate.

It was almost as if the runner was challenging him to a fight without knowing. Like a contest, seeing who could take out and consume more prey, and the Collector stopped to think of it and he realized that ZEUS didn't even know he existed, which gave him the surprise factor to work with.

For the time being, he would let ZEUS free roam with his companions. In this game of wits he had been programmed to be superior and in the end it was the survival of the deadliest.

His attention went back to a lot other fresh specimens that had been lurking around in the shadows of the alleys. He jumped from his high point and let down his body's weight with acceleration, dropping on the cattle that were the xenos and reducing them to green paste. One of his key advantages was that unlike many other organisms, he could completely alter the chemistry and composition of his mass, rendering him a chameleon for others like him and even those with improved vision.

But despite how much he was enjoying his work, in order to keep an even lower profile he chose to go into hybernation mode, allowing him to lay dormant and rest his mind for further work. He would rather have ZEUS fight at his peak, having absorbed enough prey to be a bigger challenge for him. That way all the more power he would get off him when it was time to consume.

Once he woke up it would be playtime.

* * *

 **Sorry for the shorter chapter, had to get it out of the way and introduce some stuff, like the antagonist of the story which is the Collector, also have some team bonding for the crew and shed some light on the past of the taskforce and Alex. Also, Alex and the Hunter slaying xeno's for the win!**


End file.
